Scheler on the moral and political significance of the emotions

Max Scheler's contribution to the development of phenomenology is marked perhaps most distinctively by his analysis of the emotions. Rather than treat the emotions as merely subjective or psychological, he grants them their own integrity and privileged means of access. The purpose of this chapter is to show how his phenomenological analysis of the emotions offers unique insights into the nature of moral and political responsibility. There are three main sections to this chapter. The first section provides a brief biographical sketch, highlighting those who were most instrumental in Scheler's approach to phenomenology. The second section examines how Scheler's phenomenological analysis of the emotions overcomes the reductive approaches to the emotions in Modernity including Husserl's own approach to the emotions. The third section clarifies how Scheler articulates the distinctive sense of solidarity necessarily entailed in the social relations and acts shared by members of a community.